Pittsburgh Pirates News: Team Connected With Andrew Benintendi
The Pittsburgh Pirates have only made one big move this offseason, making a trade with the Washington Nationals. While they appear to be sellers, they are connected to an outfielder.
The Pittsburgh Pirates had the worst record in baseball in 2020, and over the last three years have seen their win percentage drop from .509 to .426 to .317. The Pirates don’t project much better in 2021, as they project to be a 90 loss team before the expected Joe Musgrove and Adam Frazier trades. However, Ben Cherington has talked about acquiring the best talent possible and has refused to use the term “rebuild” and instead uses the term “build.”
The Pirates were not the only team to hire a new General Manager last offseason to have a bottom five record in baseball. The Boston Red Sox hired Chaim Bloom and the club produced the fourth worst record at 24-36. Part of this was seeing J.D. Martinez struggle at .213/.291/.389 but also because former top pick Andrew Benintendi hit .213/.291/.389 in his 14 games before missing the rest of the season with a right rib cage strain.
It seems that Boston, in part of their rebuilding of the farm system and the Major League club, is willing to listen to offers on Benintendi. Sean McAdam of Boston Sports Journal has reported that a Benintendi trade should happen soon and that the Pirates are a team to watch because of the Ben Cherington connection.
Benintendi was the seventh overall pick in the 2015 MLB Draft, the last first round pick current Pirates General Manager Ben Cherington made as GM in Boston. The Pirates could look to buy low on the outfielder – he only hit .266/.343/.431 the year prior – and extend him as he only has two years of club control left. He projects as a .256/.347/.426 hitter worth 1.7 fWAR in 2021 but could be a good buy low as he was a 4.4 win player in 2018.
Overall, the Pirates likely won’t trade away prospects to acquire the Red Sox outfielder given the time frame of their prospect waves and Benintendi’s years of club control. It is, however, interesting to see the Pirates connected to a player of his status even if it just the GM that drafted him. The Pirates need all the prospects they can and trading for Benintendi just wouldn’t make sense.